Fraserburgh Dustbowl;sandstorm in the Broch

The first four of these photographs were taken within seconds of each other at lunchtime as an extraordinary sandstorm blew dry earth from the fields along Boothby Road over Fraserburgh.

Strichen Road Roundabout - now you see it

Now you don't

Mormond Hill going..

Gone!

Later in the afternoon a trip to Tesco was an amazing surreal experience, Fraserburgh Bay was invisible, the sea hidden indistinguishable from the beach under a cloud of sand. It was so dense that visibility in Tesco carpark and at the bottom of Boothby road was dangerously reduced. There was strange orange cloud blocking the sun -apocalyptic in its eeriness. The sand coated clothing stung eyes and left a muddy deposit on the lips. In Tesco there was a loosing battle to keep the floor clean. This was reminiscent of the 'pea souper' fogs on the industrial north of England half a century ago, except that this stung and choked.

A Post script: the wind, according to Wednesday's (day after the storm) Press and Journal reached 65 m.p.h and the sandstorm was widespread, although particularly bad in the Fraserburgh area it affected Moray and much of Aberdeenshire. This morning the garden has a thin layer of alien soil, reddish in colour plant leaves and the collar of a shirt worn outside for only half an hour are coated in it. The window ledges inside the house also have  a dusting of sandy soil.

Late afternoon and the wind direction had changed clearing the air. Daffodils in Strichen Road Parkbrought out by temperatures of 16.5c yesterday and being flattened by today's wind.